KOEL. HIND. Indian cuckoo.
Kokil, . . . . BENG. I Cowde-choa, . . TAhr. . . . . MALAY. Kokila pika, . . . TEL.
This Indian cuckoo is the Eudynamis orientalis. The male is of a deep black, and the female of a dusky green mottled white. Like the cuckoo, the koel lays its eggs in the nests of some other birds. It inhabits Ceylon, India, the Malay countries, and China; all of its names are obtained from its ordinary call. Like the cuckoo of Europe, the bird is, in India, the harbinger of spring, and its call, koel, though shrill and disagreeable, is associated with all the joys and labours of hus bandry of that season, and is quoted in the rhymes and proverbs of the people ; and because the call of the koel is especially heard at the season of spring, it is called the friend of love ' Sweet bird, whom lovers deem love's messenger, Skilled to direct the god's envenomed shafts, And tame the proudest heart; oh, hither guide My lovely fugitive, or lead my steps to Where she strays.' Thus Koel boli, Sebundi doli,' the cry of the koel, is the grief of the Sebundi soldier, meaning that the disbanding of .the armed men gathered
together for collection of revenue depend on the koel's note ; Sebundi being a corruption of Sipah Hindi, in distinction to Moghul or foreign troops, who were always kept up. The European names are all derived from the Sanskrit name Cuculus.
Pliny says that the vinedressers deferred cutting their vines till the cuckoo began to sing. They have the cuckoo alc of England, to partake of which the labourers leave their work when the first cuckoo's note is heard. There is also the vulgar superstition that it is unlucky to have no money in your pocket when the first cuckoo of the season is heard ; and the amorous Hobnelia tells us, that in love omens its note is equally efficacious. The female lays its eggs in the nest of the common crow or of the carrion crow, Corvus splendens and C. culminatus ; the birds called seven brothers have been seen assiduously feeding a young koel.—Elliot ; The Hero and the -Nymph, p. 267. See Kameri.